Recognizing Students & Staff

By Scott J. Turnbull, Superintendent, Soquel Union Elementary School District

I’d like to share a few items with you as we wind down another fantastic school year in Soquel Union Elementary School District. The first two are an opportunity to recognize some of our amazing students and staff!

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Annual Reclassification Ceremony

First, I’d like to recap our “Reclassification Ceremony” or, as I like to call it, “the best night of the year!” This event took place on the evening of April 19. Our district’s Reclassification Ceremony formally recognizes every student in our district who began their education as an English learner (meaning their primary language is a language other than English) and has now reached a level of being fluent in English.

This year we hit a high note with 37 English learners in our little district formally meeting the criteria for reclassification.

The criteria to become reclassified is rigorous. Students have to meet benchmarks on California’s English Language

Proficiency Assessments for California as well as teacher evaluation, parent consultation, and achieve basic skills relative to English-proficient students.

In other words, these students have to learn English as a second language while also learning all the new content in reading, writing, math, science, and history that their English-only peers have to learn.

What an accomplishment! It was wonderful to see the students’ families at the ceremony because this sort of achievement